Creationist Wisdom #691: Jonathan Wells Fan

Because the writer isn’t a politician, preacher, or other public figure, we won’t embarrass or promote him by using his full name. His first name is David. Excerpts from his letter will be enhanced with our Curmudgeonly commentary and some bold font for emphasis. Here we go!

For the last nine-plus months I have been trying to get the Prescott Unified School District board to put on their agenda “The Icons of Evolution” supplemental material for the high school biology course. It is a student workbook that contains 21.5 pages of classroom material, and is accompanied by a classroom DVD, and can probably be completed in two to three class sessions.

The Discoveroids offer “educational” material based on his book as “a curricular supplement for use in conjunction with any high school biology textbook.” You can learn about it here: Icons of Evolution–A Study Guide. Presumably, that is what David wants his school district to use. Then he says:

It [the Discoveroid supplemental material] does not mention religion or the Bible, it shows the students only the scientific problems with the seven most common arguments for evolution found in the textbooks, and shows the students that evolution theory is a scientific controversy, rather than scientific fact.

Wow — evolution is a controversy! Let’s read on:

When you present only one side of this issue, you are indoctrinating students into secular humanism, and are even brainwashing them into accepting it as fact, so that they will not even consider any other possibility or look at evidence that contradicts the world view they’ve been brainwashed into.

Everyone is brainwashed but David. He continues:

The PUSD [Prescott Unified School District] board members refused to put it on the agenda for discussion. They did, however, allow me two minutes to address them, but that was not near enough time to even begin to look at it. I had given them the workbooks and DVDs to examine, but I could not get most of them to respond to my phone calls and emails, so I didn’t even know if they had looked at it.

It’s so unfair! Here’s more:

If you are also mad about our students being brainwashed in their biology classes, you can let the PUSD board members know how you feel, here are their email addresses: [we’ve omited those].

Moving along, it gets even better:

What happens to kids when you tell them that they came from pond scum and that life has no meaning or purpose? They deduce that there is no right or wrong, and that all morality is relative. They get involved in every sort of crime and social ill, which has skyrocketed since they took the Bible out of school in 1963, and some decide to throw away their lives by suicide and school shootings.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! The letter ends with a wonderful opportunity:

I invite you to bring your teens to the creation science seminar on July 9 at The Heights Church from 9 to noon. You can contact me at [we’ll omit that].

David has a real battle on his hands. But his cause is just, so we urge him to persevere.

What happens to kids when you tell them that they came from pond scum and that life has no meaning or purpose?

I’m sure that’s the first thing out of every biology teacher’s mouth.

Does he wonder why biology teachers are, as a rule, NOT particularly inclined to “every sort of crime and social ill?” After all, they’re exposed to evolutionary thinking year after year – surely the effects would be visible.

What happens to kids when you tell them that they came from pond scum and that life has no meaning or purpose? They deduce that there is no right or wrong, and that all morality is relative.

But of course the theory of evolution doesn’t say that life has “no meaning or purpose.” It doesn’t touch on that issue at all.

They get involved in every sort of crime and social ill, which has skyrocketed since they took the Bible out of school in 1963, and some decide to throw away their lives by suicide and school shootings.

What happens to kids when you tell them that they came from some invisible sky god for which there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever.

Society says there’s something wrong with the kids for not accepting the prevailing religious myths.

And every biology teach who ventures into the evolution field of fire surely tells them that life has no meaning or purpose so that the kids immediately deduce that there is no right or wrong, and that all morality is relative.

They get involved in every sort of crime and social ill, which has skyrocketed since they took the Bible out of school in 1963, and some decide to throw away their lives by suicide and school shootings.

And again poor David ignores all the crime, social ills, etc. shootings, that occurred in biblical times and since, but prior to poor Darwin.

If you told someone her husband/his wife was having an affair, would she/he try to investigate the situation? Would she/he hire a private eye, or track her husband’s day to day dealings, or otherwise try to ascertain the truth to the accusation? Sure. Very likely.

Tell that same person that all the things the bible says are literally true and accurate and they don’t make any effort whatsoever to validate the information contained therein but accept it without question!

What happens when you tell kids that they are made from dust of the Earth?
What happens when you tell kids that the dust came from the stars?
What happens when you tell kids that they are purposely designed to be most like chimps and other apes?
What happens when you tell kids that they come from a single cell?

What happens to religious adults when you tell them that the ultimate cause of life is as yet unknown but should be based on the evidence? They insist that the ultimate cause of life is not only known but is itself uncaused, and further, they insist that no evidence is required, and further, they insist that doing so makes them morally superior, and further, this cause gives life meaning and purpose.

What happens when you teach them that they are miserable sinners who are hopelessly tainted by “original sin” since some rather remote ancestors of their had a vegetarian meal from the wrong tree? What happens when you insist, like Paul in Romans 3, that “there is NONE righteous, not even ONE… They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is NO ONE who does good.”

This will really boost the self-confidence of the next generation and prepare them to make the world a better place, right?